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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25538905">Day 207</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard'>Josh_the_Bard</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Year in Kirkwall [207]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:26:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25538905</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Year in Kirkwall [207]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 207</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hubert’s messenger arrived around midmorning with news of the attack. Bodahn showed the boy inside and called Hawke down from his room. The boy looked anxious, eager to get his message off his chest. That could have been because the news was urgent or because Hubert had been especially rough with him.</p><p>“Report?” Hawke said.</p><p>“There was an attack on the mines,” the boy was speaking almost faster than Hawke could follow. More apostates have snuck into the Bone Pit and most of the miners have escapes but more are still trapped inside and Hubert thinks they might be blood thralls or maybe another trator betrayed us.”</p><p>Hawke was already getting ready to head out. He pulled on his robes and grabbed his potion and poison bag as he listened to the boy speak. He sent him off again to collect Aveline Varric and… should he call Anders or Merrill, he wondered.</p><p>Anders would be good if there were a lot of injured miners, but Merrill might be better at countering blood magic or demons.</p><p>“Find Merrill in the alienage,” he decided. He could provide any healing they needed and Merrill was better at completely incapacitating large groups of enemies when necessary. He was ready to leave almost as soon as the runner had departed, with a few silvers to motivate haste. He pulled on his boods and felt something squish.</p><p>Only now did he smell the scent of dogshit. First the bed last night and now this… he would have to tell Bodahn to have a word with Sandel about his antics. He didn’t have time to deal with it right now, he would just have to live with it. He called Maferuff, he hopped the source of the dogshit, and they set out towards the city gate. </p><p>Aveline, Merrill, and Varric arrived shortly after Hawke and the group set out to the Bone Pit together. There were a few survivors huddling in terror outside. Now that Jansen no longer worked here his friend Porrett had taken his place as the social leader of the group. He approached Hawke’s group, his releaf plain on his face.</p><p>“Thank the Maker you’re here,” he said. “We had some new folks show up today, they said they were new, to replace some of them that we lost. But once they were inside the mines they chased us out.”</p><p>The group moved through the twisting corridones of the drakestone mine with a disturbing amount of familiarity. This was something like the fourth or fifth time they had cleared out monsters from these tunnels and they knew all the usual hiding places by now. They were assaulted by giant undead spiders which was impressive, in that they have never encountered such a thing before, and if the Maker granted Hawke only one wish, he hoped it would be to never have to fight undead spiders again.</p><p>They found the apostates in the deepest part of the mine and the party charged forwards to engage. Or rather, Aveline charged and the rest of them hid behind her launching attacks over her head.</p><p>One of the apostates was charging up for, what would probably be, a powerful spell. He had placed Aveline between himself and Hawke so Hawke had to reposition himself to get a clear shot. He stepped on a bit of uneven ground and the shit in his boot made his foot slide around inside. He lost his balance and didn’t get his spell off in time. The mage fired the biggest stone-fist Hawke had ever seen.</p><p>It was about to slam into Hawke when Merrill dove in front of him. She took the brunt of the impact but her body knocked into Hawke, carrying them both across the room. They bounced off the far wall and fell down a mine shaft. Hawke worked to pour as much healing energy into himself and Merrill so that they might survive the fall. The last thing he saw was a wooden beam that crossed the center of the shaft. He tried to twist himself so as not to hit it but ended up slamming into it face-first.</p>
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